Epiphany [transferred]
Dear friends in Christ. The 12 day Christmas season in which we especially our Lord’s birth, that for us men and for our salvation the true God became also true man, is almost over. Today is the 11th day of Christmas, the day of the 11 Pipers Piping according to the song—the 11 pipers representing the 11 faithful apostles.
In church today, while still reveling in the celebration of our Savior’s birth, we look ahead to Epiphany and today celebrate it early. Our Gospel account is the account of the coming of the wise men and sets the theme for the entire season of Epiphany. We read in our account—wise men from the east come to worship He who has been born King of the Jews. What is significant about this is that they are non-Jews, Gentiles; but somehow/ some way they heard the prophecies about the coming Savior of the world who would be a Descendant of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob; somehow/ someway they heard about a special star that would announce His arrival. Perhaps their predecessors first heard about this promise of a Savior of the world and about the special star marking His arrival from the prophet Daniel, who when he was in Babylon was part of the group called wise men, that is, Magi; and it was he who shared that information and it was faithfully passed down the generations until the Savior had come.
But also note something else interesting: And when [King Herod] had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born. So they said to him, "In Bethlehem of Judea, for thus it is written by the prophet: 'But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, Are not the least among the rulers of Judah; For out of you shall come a Ruler Who will shepherd My people Israel.'"
Notice: they first had to consult, go through Holy Scripture. Jesus reveals Himself in the pages of Holy Scripture. That’s how Jesus works with us today: He reveals Himself to us in His holy word. There’s no end run around the word!
1. This is what Epiphany is all about—Jesus revealing Himself as to who He really is, namely, the Son of God and the Savior of the world. Jesus could have been born a thousand times but if there was no Epiphany, that is, if Jesus did not reveal Himself as the true God and the world’s Savior from sin, Christmas would not do us any good. But with Epiphany, with Jesus revealing Himself to the wise men, to people all through the ages as the true God and their Savior from sin, death, devil and hell, there’s the significance, the reason for Christmas! Because we know that our Savior was born in that stable in Bethlehem, we have great Christmas joy that lasts through all the year. Isaiah writes in our text the so what of Christmas:
Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD has risen upon you. For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples; but the LORD will arise upon you, and his glory will be seen upon you.
Epiphany is the call for us to arise and shine. But how/ why? Christmas! For your light has come. Our light, Jesus, has come born that first Christmas. That Baby that was born that first Christmas wasn’t just any Baby but He is the God-man. He is the true eternal God, the Son, the Second Person of the holy Trinity; and He is true 100% man born of the virgin Mary. And He was born so that He could be our Savior from sin, death, devil and hell. By His sinless and holy life, He would offer up to God that perfect keeping of His holy Law that He has given us to obey if we expect to enter heaven. Because we can’t, because we daily sin against God’s law and rebel against His holy will, we earn/ deserve only God’s wrath and damnation.
But we hear Epiphany’s call: Arise… for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD has risen upon you. Why can we arise? Because Jesus, the God-man, the one who would obey perfectly God’s holy Law for us/ as our Substitute was born. Not only would He fulfill in our place God’s holy Law—doing all it says—but He would take on Himself our sin, He would become the world’s sinner, be made sin [2 Cor 5.21] and on the cross suffer all of God’s wrath and punishment over our sin. By this He would reconcile the whole sinful human race—including you and me—to the holy God; all of God’s wrath over sin has already been poured out on Jesus—instead of on us who earned/ deserve it.
The cross is never far from the manger because that’s why Jesus came that first Christmas. His work for us is an accomplished fact! And so the command: Arise… for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD has risen upon you.
Look at that image for the command: Arise! Get up! What does it show? Who are the ones being addressed? Ones who are beaten down to the ground, dejected, crushed and defeated. These are the ones who know/ recognize their sin. Their consciences accuse them—and rightly so—of sin. They have looked at their hearts and lives in the mirror of God’s holy law and saw their sin and God’s judgment awaiting them. They recognized that by their sin heaven is shut and hell is opened before them. To those who honestly see and recognize their sin and its damnableness, they are crushed and lying in the gutter but then comes the glorious command: Arise… for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD has risen upon you. That’s the word of absolution. Arise… for your light has come—get up! Your sins are forgiven you! Your light—that is—Christ your Savior has come, born the Baby of Mary in Bethlehem, and He has come to be your Savior from sin and He is your Savior from sin. The glory of the LORD has risen upon you, that is, now He is giving you the gifts of the forgiveness of sins and peace with God. Now in Christ you enjoy nothing but God’s grace and favor. Now, by faith, His righteousness and holiness are yours. Your sin no longer separates you from God. It’s forgiven!
The forgiveness of sins/ the absolution stands as an accomplished fact: the glory of the LORD has risen upon you. That’s not only the reason why God commands us sinners to arise but that’s also the power of the command. On our own we cannot arise; we don’t have the power to stand up and know the true God and His gifts and blessings and to receive them. To us also applies what Isaiah says in our text: For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples. All people as we come into the world lack the right knowledge of God and are totally abandoned in sin. That’s the darkness that covers the peoples of the earth like a heavy cloud, or as Luther puts it in the catechism, that we cannot by our own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ our Lord or come to Him. What happens? But the LORD will arise upon you, and his glory will be seen upon you. The Lord arises upon us, that is, His light—the saving light of His word in which He reveals Himself to us; the light of His accomplished work, the absolution—shines on us. And through Jesus revealing Himself to us in His word, through the proclamation of His work and the giving of His gifts of forgiveness of sin in the word and sacrament, the Holy Spirit is mightily at work on our hearts creating faith to recognize and welcome Christ aright and to receive His gifts and blessings. In other words, when we hear Epiphany’s command Arise, it is God’s work that we arise; through the faith He works in us by His Holy Spirit at work in the word and sacrament we arise and are brought out of the darkness of sin and into the light of salvation.
2. After arising, what’s next? Now that we are Christians recognizing that it was the God-man Who was born on Christmas and that He is our Savior from sin; that He has won for us every grace and blessing from God; that the gifts and blessings of His work for us stand; what else does God command us? Shine! And why? And nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising.
Here we come to the other theme of Epiphany. Not only do we rejoice that the Savior of the world has come and was born that first Christmas and that He has brought about our salvation and now reveals Himself to us in His holy word and sacrament and through these gives us every heavenly gift and blessing, but we also see that Epiphany means something else for us—we shine. Shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD has risen upon you… and his glory will be seen upon you.
We are like the moon—the moon doesn’t have its own power to shine and yet it shines at night because it reflects the sun. The Christian shines because the glory of the LORD has risen upon you… and his glory will be seen upon you. We shine not only because Christ shone on us, but because Jesus joins Himself to His Christians, His Church. Not only did God become man and be born that first Christmas, but now through the waters of holy baptism and by faith the Christian is so united with Christ—we are in Him and He is in us. We, dear Christian—the Church—are the recipients of every gift of God’s grace in time and eternity.
And to His holy Church Jesus has entrusted His holy word and sacraments. So now the Church—and that includes each Christian—has that glorious command Shine! We, the Church, each Christian bear the light of the Gospel. As we enjoy and make use of all the gifts of God’s grace that Jesus obtained for us by His holy life and innocent suffering and death; as we revel and rejoice in the absolution; we do not and we cannot keep such a precious gift to ourselves, instead, we Shine! We, the Church, glow in the radiance of our heavenly Lord and radiate into the world covered with the darkness of sin and ignorance of the true God that light of Christ who was born that first Christmas. Each Christian has that glorious privilege to tell by word and deed those around him/her the good news about Jesus. Here we come to Epiphany’s theme of mission work.
As we, personally, tell others the good news of Jesus, the Savior born for them; as we pray for the outreach of our congregation and the work of our missionaries in places near and far, we are shining. Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD has risen upon you. Jesus came, not just so He could be that Baby born to the virgin in Bethlehem, but He came to set up His NT Church. He did that by His holy life and innocent suffering and death. And now that He is risen from the dead and ascended into heaven He sends His Holy Spirit on His Church so that through the word that she shares—be it through her missionaries or her individual Christians telling those around them the good news of Jesus—He may bring more and more people into His kingdom, the Church. What a glorious privilege we have to shine; for Jesus doesn’t have to, but in grace He chose to use us as His instruments to expand His kingdom the Church—and to do so He has given us His word and sacraments.
What joy is ours—not only that we are part of Christ’s kingdom, the Church, but as we see others coming into it: And nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising. Lift up your eyes all around, and see they all gather together [or translated literally: they all are gathered together, passive, God has gathered them] they come to you. Today, as we remember the coming of the wise men, we see them already prophesied in our text: A multitude of camels shall cover you, the young camels of Midian and Ephah; all those from Sheba shall come. They shall bring gold and frankincense, and shall bring good news, the praises of the LORD. What a glorious picture they serve of people down through the ages coming to faith in Christ and being gathered into His kingdom. By the Holy Spirit’s work in the word people are drawn to Christ and stream to His Kingdom, the Church. The peoples—including you and me-- bring gifts of myrrh and gold and frankincense; we, enjoying and basking in His graces and gifts, dedicate ourselves and all we are and have to Christ and His Church.
What a glorious Epiphany command: Arise—our sins are forgiven us; Shine—live in that grace and forgiveness; because our Savior was born and now gives us His grace and blessings: for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD has risen upon you. INJ Amen.